


Single Dads AU

by d2fmeasurement



Category: Silicon Valley (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-12
Updated: 2016-04-12
Packaged: 2018-06-01 22:38:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6539341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/d2fmeasurement/pseuds/d2fmeasurement
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dinesh and Gilfoyle meet at their kids Pop Warner game.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Single Dads AU

Dinesh had been completely shocked that a child raised by him and Richard would be at all interested in sports, but he was cheering him on at his first Pop Warner football game. 

When he saw people standing up and cheering, he realized that someone had managed to put the ball through the thingie. He stood up to join in the cheering.

The aggressive mom who’d previously chastised him for not bringing good enough juice glared at him and said, “The other team just scored, Mr. Chugtai. Please try to follow the game. Your child’s self-esteem is at stake.”

Dinesh tried to smile politely but rolled his eyes as soon as she was looking away.

The guy next to him softly said, “I have no idea what the fuck is going on here either.” 

Dinesh turned and smiled, glad to have found a kindred spirit. The guy speaking to him had long hair, tattoos and was wearing black skinny jeans. Dinesh normally thought dads who still looked like that were kind of pathetic and weird, but he had to admit this guy was kind of pulling it off.

“I’m Dinesh,” he said. “My son is #14. Matt.”

“I’m Gilfoyle,” he said. “My daughter Mulciber is the cheerleader with the purple hair.” 

“You named you daughter after a devil?” Dinesh asked, wrinkling his nose.

“Mulciber was one of the most productive and skilled devils in Hell,” Gilfoyle said. “And look at those perfect high kicks. Already living up to her name.”

Dinesh was a little scared of this weirdo, but at this point he found the other intense suburban parents even weirder. Since Richard had sort of gotten all their friends in the divorce, Dinesh had been pretty lonely. He hesitated for a second but then asked, “Hey, do you maybe wanna get some pizza together with our kids after this?” 

Gilfoyle smiled and said, “Sure.” 

When the game was over, they met up at a nearby pizza place. When they sat in their booth, Dinesh immediately noticed the way Matt was staring at Mulciber. 

“I’m Mulciber,” she told him. “What’s your name?” 

“Uh...” It took him a while before he remembered and said, “Matt.” After more staring at her, he said, “Your hair is pretty. I bet it smells really good.” 

Dinesh cringed, wishing Matt hadn’t inherited his dads’ level of game. Gilfoyle smiled at the kids affectionately. 

 

Later, the kids climbed around the play place together. “What are they doing?” Dinesh asked.

“I think Mulcy invented a game where she throws shoes at him and that’s the whole game. He seems pretty into it though.” 

“Great,” Dinesh said, furrowing his eyebrows.  
“What do you do, Dinesh?” Gilfoyle asked him.

“I’m the CTO at Pied Piper.” 

Gilfoyle laughed and said, “Oh, shit, the company that CEO just had a breakdown and up and left?” 

Dinesh cringed a little. “Uh-huh.” 

“He wrote that weird manifesto about how corrupt the tech industry is and then retired to travel around the world with his personal assistant, right?” 

“Head of human resources, actually,” Dinesh said. 

“Shit, is the company okay?” 

“Yeah, they made sure everything would be fine before they... ran off,” Dinesh murmured. 

Gilfoyle looked at Dinesh’s expression and after a second, he asked, “Holy shit, is that your ex? Flaky Pied Piper CEO is your ex?” 

“Yup,” Dinesh said bitterly. 

“Shit. Who gets dumped for an HR guy?” Gilfoyle asked, shaking his head.

“Me, apparently,” Dinesh said. 

“Is everything...” Gilfoyle glanced over at the play place. “I mean, he just bailed?” 

Dinesh shook his head and said, “No. No, it’s fine. He’s not... quite... as bad as that manifesto made him sound. He loves Matt and everything and we had a normal custody agreement. He just... he really was not meant to be a CEO.” 

“Fucking pussy,” Gilfoyle said.

Dinesh laughed. “What about you?” 

“Do you mean what’s my job or how painful was my breakup?” Gilfoyle asked.

Dinesh laughed and shook his head. “It wasn’t... it wasn’t that bad.” When he saw Gilfoyle’s skeptical look, he said, “I mean it. I mean, it always sucks to be the person who gets left for someone else, but I’d been feeling for a long time that we weren’t actually soulmates.” He hated the look of pity Gilfoyle was giving him, so he said, “Okay, well, now you have to tell me how painful your divorce was.”

“No divorce,” Gilfoyle said. “We were never married. I mean, we had sort of a wedding ceremony at our church, but it wasn’t an actual legal thing.” 

“Church?” Dinesh repeated. “You don’t seem like the church type.”

“Church of Satan,” Gilfoyle clarified

“That make more sense,” Dinesh said.

“Anyway, it was on again off again for a long time and then she got this job offer in Seattle and we thought, you know, maybe it’s time to stop repeating the same patterns over and over again and actually distance ourselves,” he said. “It’s nice,” he said, in a somewhat unconvincing voice. 

“Yeah, I can tell you think it’s nice,” Dinesh teased.

“I miss the highs of being wildly in love,” Gilfoyle admitted. “But, they were always followed by fighting and hating each other and you can’t do that once you have a kid. So, this is good.” 

Dinesh nodded a little. “You know, your problem sounds like the exact opposite of my problem. I never had those highs and lows. It was always... nice. Richard was nice. And I thought that when you find something nice, you’re supposed to hold onto it.”

“I hope you’ve learned your lesson,” Gilfoyle said. “No one should have to settle for nice. You deserve...” He leaned forward and smiled, looking right into Dinesh’s eyes as he said, “Someone who’ll make your heart race with excitement and all that.”

Dinesh felt his face get hot. He realized his mouth was agape and closed it. “Yeah. Uh-huh. I mean, that’s the hope.” He cleared his throat and then asked, “Hey, do you wanna do this again some time?” He nervously added, “I mean, just because the kids seem to really like each other.”

They watched as Mulcifer threw a shoe at Matt, hitting him in the chest. “Great throw!” Matt said enthusiastically.


End file.
